Posts: 501
Joined: 30/9/2005 From: No mans land between London and Brighton, Surrey

Just bought the recently released Criterion edition of Harakiri (1962) to add to my ever growing collection of black and white samurai films.

A seriously great film. If you like that kind of thing buy it!

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They made King Kong didnt they? A film about a giant monkey trying to force himself on a very small woman but when I submit a script about a man played by me, who tries to force himself on a very small monkey, they said audiences would find it distasteful

The Seventh Seal - Absolutley freaking amazing! Its masterfully made with really interesting Script and Cinematography, it doesn't seem to have aged a day. The theme of the fear death, I guess will be around as long as humans exist. I have not seen any Ingmar Bergman before this and it sure as hell won't be my last. Its really horrific in places and yet really warm in others. I recomend this for any one who hasn't seen it, a truely wonderful film! *****

I agree. Watched it again for the first time in years the other week (if you've not watched it with the commentary track on, then do so immediately - Bey Logan and Mike Leeder are on sparkling - if possibly inebriated - form, even if they don't talk much about the film in question), and although its faults* are glaring, it's no less charming for them. Sheer topness, and derserving of its status of being at the very forefront of the current wave of Korean Cinema. And its lampooning in the hillarious Fun Movie is one of the film's highlights :)

* The biggest fault is continuity - the story is based on Korea's biggest-selling comicbook, and so the director has taken a couple of liberties with the small budget that he had to work with. The biggest liberty being a massive chunk of the comic's plot (from where our hero supposedly dies to where he reappears alonside the coolest group of black-clad warriors ever to grace a cinema screen) simply wasn't filmed, as it was mostly talky stuff and as everyone in Korea who went to see the film knows what happened in the meantime, nobody could be arsed filming it (unlike other Korean films of the time hacked away at by distributors not wanting a bit of chat getting in the way of the action such as Nowhere to Hide, Volcano High or Musa, the version we have here is actually a few minutes longer than the theatrical original). It's a rather disconcerting leap in the narrative, and may leave the viewer thinking that he/she may have inadvertantly dropped off for half an hour. The other one is a budgetary issue. The beautifully natural sets (filmed for the most part in China) make up for a huge amount of the financial constraints, but a German Shepherd painted blue (they didn't even have enough paint to do the whole dog) does NOT = a Wolf by any stretch of the imagination

I've been going through the Chow Yun Fat back catalogue and enjoying all three A Better Tomorrow'sover again, along with all three God of Gamblers'. The man can act! and he was haokanin his day (he's still quite handsome). Also re-living some of Leslie Cheung's finer moments: Farewell My Concubine and Days of Being Wild.Why, Leslie, why????

I've had Lagaan on my shelf for several month, but now I have finally seen it. And I loved it!

Small spoilers below: The songs were fun and moving, especially the first one when they thought it would rain, and the one where Bhuvan declared his love to Gauri (I'm a bit of a romantic..). Gauri was incredibly beautiful and had an amazing screen precence! I had trouble reading the subtitles whenever she flashed her smile And the way Bhuvan managed to gather the village and even include the impure Kachra was great.

The cricket match was also very exiting, one of the best if not the best sport climax I have seen.

A lot of other great characters and performances also, like Guran and the Russell's.

Pre-ordering the R1 DVD of Final Fantasy: Advent Children got me in the mood for watching the Japanese version again, so that's what I did. And talking about Dead or Alive 3: Final put in the mood for watching that as well, so I did that too. I also mentioned Andromedia in the same thread, but fortunately I didn't dig that particularly off Miike Takashi effort* out. Although I'll probably have to watch it tomorrow, just to refresh my memory as to why I keep avoiding it.

*For those unfamiliar with this particular cinematic "gem", here's the skinny. It's 1998, and Miike had just released his most celebrated and "grown-up" film to date (Bird People in China, one of his best), and had a bit of time on his hands before starting work on Blues Harp. At about the same time, the management of 2 supremely average Japanese idol bands (the all-girl Speed and the all-boy Da Pump) decided that they wanted to put their product out to a mass audience, and decided to make a movie with them as the stars. What happened next is a bit of a mystery to all and sundry (especially the bit where they get master lush/cinematographer Christopher Doyle to appear in it), but somehow Miike ends up making Andromedia, a simple tale of airbrushedly-attractive pop folk, one of whom gets killed right at the start of the film and becomes an A.I. entity on a laptop thanks to her scientist/boffin dad. Not quite Spiceworld, but not that far off either.

I recently watched a very long engagement, beautiful film however not better than amelie but great directing by Jean-Pierre Jeunet once again! Just wondering which should i rather buy on DVD Howl's moving castle or Spirited Away?? Thank you

Just wondering which should i rather buy on DVD Howl's moving castle or Spirited Away?? Thank you

The only place where Howl's is currently legitimately available for pre-order is Japan (out November 16), and it's not cheap. Unless you're looking to buy a cinema-filmed bootleg before than, I'd get Spirited Away now and wait a couple of months for the HK Region 3 version to be released. The PAL R2 version will be a loooong way away.

Arahan: Another thoroughly enjoyable 'popcorn' film. I kind of feel that this film has been 'missold' to people, coming on the back of 'Kung Fu Hustle', it was advertised as a laugh-a-minute comedy, which it most certainly is not.

Yes, it has its laugh out loud moments, but is in no way, shape or form a 'COMEDY' and is very unfair to compair it to anything done by Stephen Chow. I suppose that a better comparrison would have been 'Police Story' (or any number of Jackie Chan films), but with fantasy elements.

Only real gripe with the film itself is (and I never thought I'd see the day where I would say this) the final fight scene went on a little too long. However, on the whole, it was enjoyable enough. I'm never going to include it in any 'Top Ten' soon, but if you are after a light hearted film that has some good action, then you could do far worse.

A Bittersweet Life-Kim Ji-Woon -Really enjoyed this,great looking film with lots of action and a couple of moments of brilliant black humour with the worst arms dealers you've ever seen.

Samaritan Girl-Kim Ki-Duk -Another very good film from Kim Ki-Duk,I found it really sad and disturbing at times,again he goes for a subject that few would tackle,this time two schoolgirls who are involved in prostitution but of course it goes much deeper than the surface story.

Ok, so I know plenty of people that slate this film, but hey, they also say that Jackie Chan is boring ans that Sammo Hung is too fat to be doing what he does. Idiots, the lot of them. This is just a fun movie. Its not big, its not clever, it doesn't profess to change your way of life, it is just entertainment for 90 minutes (which is more than I can say for the Arsenal at the moment).

Andrew Lau (Stormriders, The Duel) does a good enough job in keeping the interest. Sammo is as good as ever, some nice visuals to keep it looking pretty. As per usual with such films, the story is a bit pish, the usual suspects are covered, Family, Honour, yadda yadda yadda. However, do we really watch these films for their story? Its like watching 'Die Hard' for its Social Statement. Rubbish, you watch 'Die Hard' to see Bruce Willis kick ass and blow stuff up. FACT.

All in all, a film that will get dragged out anytime I can't be bothered to sit through 2 hours and 20 minutes of 'Casshern'. Good stuff, but not a classic.

Just wondering which should i rather buy on DVD Howl's moving castle or Spirited Away?? Thank you

The only place where Howl's is currently legitimately available for pre-order is Japan (out November 16), and it's not cheap. Unless you're looking to buy a cinema-filmed bootleg before than, I'd get Spirited Away now and wait a couple of months for the HK Region 3 version to be released. The PAL R2 version will be a loooong way away.

thank you for the info guess its spirited away then but if its crap ........but im sure it wont be with all the reviews

Just watched "The Idiots" by Lars Von Trier. Bloody brilliant, that's all I can say. Some hugely, hugely suspenseful scenes.

Yeh Im a fan of this film....its not something Id like to sit and watch with my family but its definetly worth seeing. At first I didnt know quite what to make of it but as it went on I found myself really enjoying it. Disturbing, Distasteful and Disgusting in places but a Damn Delightful watch

yup just finished watching whale rider pleasantly surprised at the film. Nice laid back film that deals with the old traditions of the Maori tribes. definitely recommend to ppl . the music and the scenery are amazing!!

Just watched Ichi the Killer. I had low expectations after my friends slated it called it 'overated' and 'cut'. But, man, I was blown away, this was a truly, fantastically, gut-wrenching experience and wildy entertaining. I have a feeling I wil be watching this one again some time. I can understand the critisms of it, saying that its a pointless exercise in taboo-busting, I can see where those people are coming from but I found it an amazingly confident and distinctive film that pushes back boundaries and does things you would never expect. Top storyline too!